"You can get used to the taste difference"
Bill Gates wants us to eat synthetic meat, to help save the world.
The Microsoft co-founder has a new book out,
How to Avoid a Climate Disaster, and has been on the publicity trail to promote its release.
In an interview with
MIT Technology Review, Gates spoke about how it wants people to switch to synthetic meats that would cut methane emissions.
"I do think all rich countries should move to 100% synthetic beef," said Gates. "You can get used to the taste difference, and the claim is they’re going to make it taste even better over time. Eventually, that green premium is modest enough that you can sort of change the [behaviour of] people or use regulation to totally shift the demand."
Bill Gates does acknowledge that it will be a big cultural shift, and that it is something that we would need to keep tabs on. In particular, he highlights how the labeling of such products could play a part in normalising synthetic meat.
"But it’s one of those ones where, wow, you have to track it every year and see, and the politics [are challenging]. There are all these bills that say it’s got to be called, basically, lab garbage to be sold. They don’t want us to use the beef label."
The 65-year-old has recently hit back at conspiracies posted on social media claiming he had some kind of sinister involvement in the spread of coronavirus.
Since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, the philanthropist has been the subject of spurious claims falsely accusing him of sinister involvement in the handling of the Covid-19 crisis.
In a video posted by Reuters, Gates said the conspiracies likely spread due to a combination of a global pandemic and the growing influence of social media.
"The presence of social media plus a pandemic is a combination that's never been tried before.
"Nobody would have predicted that I and Dr. Fauci would be so prominent in evil theories about 'Did we create the pandemic?' or 'Are we trying to profit from it?'"
Gates said he was surprised by the number of false claims posted online about him and Dr. Anthony Fauci, an infectious disease expert currently serving as Chief Medical Adviser to the US President.
"There are millions of messages out there where my name or Dr. Fauci's name is used. But do people really believe that stuff?"
